Sen says he was particularly happy to receive the Lamont University professorship, not only because its prestige and the academic freedom it allows, but also because of former President Derek C. Bok's description of the professorship.

When it was established, the description included economics, Sen says, "but it was much more concerned with the underside of economics--poverty and inequality--and also very deeply concerned with human behavior and rationality."

It was a pleasant surprise: "I was particularly pleased because it fit so uncannily well with my interests," Sen continues.

"My relationship to Harvard is a very intimate one," Sen says, and he says that though he resides much of the year at Trinity College in the "other" Cambridge, the ties with Harvard "give me an opportunity to return to my home, here in Cambridge," and to teach at Harvard.

Dedication to Students

Many of Sen's colleagues cite his commitment to undergraduate education, despite the opportunities he has had to do research and study without having a teaching load.

"He's an incredibly dedicated teacher," wrote Martha Nussbaum, a law professor at the University of Chicago and a frequent collaborator with Sen, in an e-mail message.

"While he held the University Professorship at Harvard, which doesn't require any teaching at all, he always taught a full load and loved teaching in the Core," she wrote. "He thinks teaching undergraduates is very important," she added.

Foster recounts how he first met Sen--in a letter. "I sent him a copy of an undergraduate senior paper. He was at the London School of Economics, and I was at a small college in Florida," Foster says. "He read the paper and sent back comments, and he suggested I submit it to an economics journal. He encouraged me."

Sen agrees undergraduates have always been an important part of his life and says students have furthered his work. "I don't think I ever published a book that was not vetted by the students, in the sense that I presented it in one form or another in classes," he says.

And his students say Sen is an open and accessible professor.

"I've found him surprisingly approachable," wrote Estelle Cantillon in an e-mail message. Cantillon served as teaching fellow for Sen's mini-course this year. She wrote that Sen was very receptive to her ideas to re-shape the graduate course and that he "always been there to support students initiatives that broaden our intellectual experience."

As Master of Trinity College, Sen has continued to show a dedication to undergraduates.

Andreas K. Demetriades, the president of the BA Society at Trinity, the student union, praised Sen in an e-mail message.

"Professor Sen is a unique figure in Trinity College.... His vibrant and highly active silhouette can be seen crossing Great Court at any given time of the day and night," he wrote.

Demetriades wrote Sen often leaves the Master's High Table to converse with undergraduates, and Sen arranges for every student in the College to eat with him in the Master's residence at least once a year.